Eddie, 41, said: "We are a small business trying not to be a small business.

"We've got 30 people now and are in the process of taking another geo-technical engineer on.

"We are building up the company and do seem to have a bit more of a strength of depth of expertise than others.

"It took a while to build up but I think we've done pretty well so far.

"Some people say there's a danger of businesses growing too fast, but when we started we were aiming to grow to 50 people, so we are well on the way to that."

He said M-EC will be expanding into a second office at the Davidsons headquarters in the summer.

There are even plans for a satellite office in London.

M-EC turned over £1.5 million last year, up 50 per cent on the previous year, and this year is targeting £2 million.

In the past year, it has won more than 250 individual contracts, with about 80 per cent within Leicestershire and the East Midlands.

Eddie said: "We have long-term ambitions to have our own purpose-built offices. We've got a couple of years on our current lease. I would say the London office plan would happen in the next five years though." The next 12 months will be crucial to those plans.

Eddie said: "We really think instructions are going to go through the roof in the summer.

"There was a big surge last year and I think it's been helped by the Government's Help to Buy scheme, because that's helped maintain confidence in the building trade.

"There's still such a big demand for housing.

"Housebuilders are normally a good barometer of what's going on in the economy, so the fact that the industry is creating jobs is a good sign.

"There's also a lack of good-sized warehousing and you can see new builds going up now.

"Regardless of general economies, we know we can get a greater market share of the work that's already out there."